President of major Southern Baptist seminary, Adam Greenway steps down

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a prominent Southern Baptist seminary located in Fort Worth, Texas, announced Friday afternoon its president, Adam Greenway, was stepping down.

“He (Greenway) came to Southwestern Seminary during a difficult time of transition and has worked tirelessly to lead the institution to serve well the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Southwestern board chair Danny Roberts said in a statement.

Greenway’s presidency was viewed by many as a sea change after his predecessor, Paige Patterson, was ousted for reportedly mishandling reports of sexual assault.

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Patterson’s removal and Greenway’s appointment in February 2019 coincided with heightened levels of awareness about clergy sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention. At the same time, Southwestern began to experience financial challenges and declines in enrollment.

“These days are incredibly challenging in the life of our denomination,” Greenway said in Southwestern’s news release.

O.S. Hawkins, who recently retired as president of Guidestone Financial Resources — an SBC-affiliated agency that manages clergy benefits and retirement plans — was named Southwestern’s acting president.

Southwestern is among the largest SBC seminaries, of which there are six. However, it faced the most consistent year-over-year declines in full-time student enrollment of all six seminaries between 2019-2021, according to analysis of data from the Association of Theological Schools.

Though funding from an SBC budget called the Cooperative Program offset student tuition, enrollment declines still impacted seminaries’ annual revenue.

The other SBC seminaries are Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Missouri, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisiana and Gateway Seminary of the SBC in California.

“What we failed to appreciate was the enormity of the reputational, legal, and financial realities,” Greenway added in his statement.

Southwestern continues to deal with the fallout of Patterson, who not only led the seminary between 2004-2018, but is considered the architect of the Conservative Resurgence, a movement that transformed the denomination starting in the late 1970s.

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Patterson was fired from the seminary and stripped of his benefits after a series of revelations, including that he discouraged a female seminarian in 2003 from reporting a rape allegation while he was president at Southeastern.

Media outlets also reported that in 2015, Patterson sent an email to a Southwestern official expressing his desire to meet one-on-one with a female seminarian who reported an assault to "break her down." That woman is currently suing Patterson and Southwestern, and a jury trial is scheduled to start in late October.

Meanwhile, Southwestern settled a lawsuit last year involving former administrators and others with ties to Patterson over the alleged misuse of funds gifted to a charitable foundation founded to benefit Southwestern and Baylor University.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: President of Southwestern Baptist Seminary resigns